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    RAID issues with dissimilar speed drives?

    OK. I have a NAS that uses 10 1TB 10k RPM Velociraptor HDDs. It's SATA only. Squeezed into mATX case, with a FlexATX mobo. HDDs are ancient and bound to fail at some point. Whilst there are there are refurbished(?) and even a handful of new drives on the market, they are expensive. When...
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    Where do I find a sturdy cardbox for packaging an ICX 7250-48P (in EU)

    I feel your pain. I've got a bunch of low value kit that I want to get rid of. Pick up/drop off by/to local people is the only economical option. I fell down a rabbit hole of box/carton staplers. They aren't cheap. Cutting down a box is probably the best option and use strong tape.
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    Lots of Optical Drives

    How many of the Startech cards can you get in the R720 etc? Do they support OS other than Windows? I've had issues using USB 3 cards with Linux boxes. Something I don't really understand is why USB peripherals are not always recognised by host computer, especially when using a USB hub. Is...
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    Lots of Optical Drives

    Something that occurred to me - how good are Blu-ray drives at reading older format disks? I can remember situations when DVD-writer would fail to read damaged CD but a CD drive had no problem. I've been binning PATA optical drives today.
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    Lots of Optical Drives

    CD/DVD duplication devices can turn up for cheap. In themselves probably not what you need but the cases might be useful to you. I remember the time it took me to rip a couple of hundred CDs. 9000 disks? I shudder to think how long that might take.
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    USB C/Thunderbolt hub

    I eventually bought a Dell TB16/K16A with 130w PSU for £23 (which is a good price in the UK). It does the job - one cable for power, data and video. Desk is much tidier as a result. Wife is pleased. There are a couple of things that could be done to make desk even tidier. eg swap out wired...
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    USB C/Thunderbolt hub

    HP laptop is a couple years old Spectre x360 14. It does have Thunderbolt. I think that a chunky second user "dock" from known brand might be a better bet than a new <insert random string> brand "hub".
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    USB C/Thunderbolt hub

    Another annoyance of USB C hubs is the very short cable tail.
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    USB C/Thunderbolt hub

    What do I mean by "extraneous"? SD/TF card slots. Analogue audio ports. More than one HDMI/DP out. The dream is the one cable swap out. One thing I don't quite grasp is whether that USB C port on a laptop that is described as power does data too? There are plenty of devices that use USB C...
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    USB C/Thunderbolt hub

    If someone else was paying for it, I'm sure it's an ideal solution. As I'm paying for it, way too expensive. Most of the peripherals are USB 2 speeds. Mouse, keyboard, webcam and printers. There is an external HDD that's USB 3. I've got various wifi dongles that want USB 3. There are USB 3...
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    USB C/Thunderbolt hub

    My wife's desk has become a rat's nest of cables. Lots of reasons why but life is too short to list them. There's a ThinkPad E14 Gen 5, HP machine as well as recent-ish Intel-based MacBook Pro. Don't use them all together so unplugging/replugging USB C cable(s) is fine. Have a number of USB C...
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    Drive cages

    Can't upload image for some reason. 5.25'' Cage Rack Hard Drive Tray Caddy Bay to 5x 3.5'' SATA SAS HDD Expansion | eBay is an example but you can find them in various places. It's not hot swap. Nor does it have a backplane.
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    Drive cages

    The front door was lost before I got hold of it. This review is helpful. Wood is under rated as a DIY case material.
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    Drive cages

    Very cool. "If I had a 3D printer" crops up a lot here but I can't afford a decent one at the moment and my 3D CAD skills are pretty much zero. I managed to find another case for free that is better suited to my purposes - Chieftec Scorpio TX-10BLD Entry Level Server Chassis. What you...
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    Looking for Business computer replacement

    If the type C port supports DisplayPort Alternate Mode, you can connect up to 2 x 4K 60Hz displays. I've a USB C "dock" (they are more "dongle" form/size in my mind) that has one DP and two HDMI - the dongles do the conversion from DP to HDMI. HDMI to both VGA and DVI-I exist if you have older...
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    Looking for a UPS

    Do you have roof space for solar?
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    Anyone suffer brain injury and having issues working in IT?

    I suffer from some cognitive issues. Partly due to age, partly due to medication, partly due to mental health issues. It's not helped by the realisation that in the past I've done "genius" things but not for several years. It's good that you've kept working. I've not been able to hold down a...
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    Alluxio - hierarchical storage solution?

    https:.//www.alluxio.io/ It's a very intriguing product because it claims to do proper hierarchical storage and afaik the only open source software that does. Suspect that it's overkill for home lab use. I wonder if anyone has used it either in a professional or homelab context?
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    Home Office vs "Garden Office" quality of life

    Based in the UK so things like basement don't apply. Long story but in short had a shed with power and insulation but big cedar tree dropped needles on it that caused the roof to rot. It's probably beyond economical repair and stopped using it as prime homelab location etc. I can see why...
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    Older peripherals that are still relevant

    It's been decades since I've worked in graphics/publishing role. It's been years since I've owned a working scanner. I'm somewhat surprised that Vuescan has 600,000 paying customers but then again, last couple of cheap scanners I owned had terrible software. Combined with better old scanners...